The iPad Just Got a Lot More Like a Mac Thanks to These 20+ New Features

[Agent007]

macOS apps aren’t designed for the 11” screen of the standard iPad, or for iPadOS’s more limited memory management. macOS would burn through the battery pretty quickly.

I won’t say that Apple will never put macOS on an iPad, but it’s been 15 years since iPad was first released, and 4+ since they gave it an M-series chip, so I’m not holding my breath.

As far as memory management goes the iPadOS memory management would be irrelevant if it booted MacOS. Doesn't kill the battery on a MacBook Air.

 

[stiligFox]

I am so freaking excited, this is unreal! Pretty much all my want-to-haves between iPadOS and iOS got answered this year.

Absolutely stoked!

 

[mattopotamus]

I think this looks so great. I am REALLY excited about Preview. This has been a mysterious thing for Apple to ignore for so long, given what an iPad is and how it is a natural interface for reading PDFs (if you're an academic like me, you read a lot of PDFs). I use a number of third party PDF apps, and they're fine. But I think the features and interoperability shown here make sense, and may lure me back to using Preview.

I was always dragging PDFs to Freeform to read and edit them.

 

[macabrumorsab]

Its not Dex

Well, actually it is the iPadOS version of Dex.

 

[mattopotamus]

Can the user open multiple instances of the same app?

Yes.

 

[lars666]

Will simultaneously audio from different apps finally be possible resp. standard? 🙏🙏🙏

 

[trip1ex]

Really I just need all this for the iPhone when plopped into a 'Switch-like dock.'

 

[It’s always something]

I really want to get my hopes up for all of this stuff coming to my iPad 11/A16. Is that even rational? I’ve never been more tempted to install a beta than when I read this article.

 

[East India Company]

1) Stop running around the pot! Just put a real macOS on the iPad!!

2) still no multiuser account on iPadOS. The one feature that almost everyone wants to have…

 

[klasma]

So after 3 years, the stage manager failed miserably？

It evolved, like a Pokémon.

 

[starlabjump]

This update further narrows the gap between iPadOS and macOS.

 

[shapesinaframe]

Q: So then why not simply add a MacOS mode to it?

A: App Store revenue.....

Which is why we’ll never get an AS 12” MacBook 😒

 

[roland.g]

Apple: "We refuse to make touchscreen Macs even though all the competitors are have touchscreen notebooks."

After several years our solution is now to make the existing touchscreen tablets, more like our desktop OS. You still have to run apps in a different environment, but it's not AS restrictive as before.

 

[BitBLT]

Sounds terrible. Are they going to force the use of a stylus as well?

 

[falainber]

Does that mean that iOS becomes less restrictive in multitasking (similar to Android)?

 

[aevan]

Q: So then why not simply add a MacOS mode to it?

A: App Store revenue.....

God, not this again….

 

[aevan]

I find it funny that ever since the iPad came out, everyone has been screaming for these features. Now that they are here, it's just nothing but negative comments about it.

People love to **** on Apple and Nintendo.

 

[KPOM]

As far as memory management goes the iPadOS memory management would be irrelevant if it booted MacOS. Doesn't kill the battery on a MacBook Air.

The MacBook Air is a lot bigger than an 11” iPad.

 

[CalMin]

no Xcode for iPad.....

No but, realistically, would anyone use it?

I was so happy to get FCP on iPad until I realized that the UI was so different it wasn't usable. Then I asked myself, why do I want to use this when my laptop is in the same room and there's no learning curve.

I think Xcode would be a similar experience.

 

[djrm]

2) still no multiuser account on iPadOS. The one feature that almost everyone wants to have…

This.

 

[psxp]

finally. I will make use of some of these improvements.

 

[patseguin]

I’m running it on my iPad M4. Not overly impressed. I don’t really see many glass effects and the new window mode is just stage manager with more resizable windows. The menu bar that’s always there is useless.

 

[Macalway]

My goodness. And here I'd almost given up hope LO

Preview inclusion is great, and file system improvements.

What are the audio improvements? I never needed mulitple audio streams as I relied on apps. Still was better than Windows.

 

[rp2011]

Apple had gone out of its way to make using an iPad with a monitor repulsive. The awful blob pointer that only the most dedicated Apple sycophant could love. Stage Manager, the list was long. Apple and its marketing "philosophy" were not just pushing people towards things they didn't want; they were making the experience so much worse because of it.

I sincerely hope Apple stops with their "philosophy" and just delivers the feature that people want, the features that make them the most productive, instead of their idiotic marketing "philosophies".

iPad OS 25 is a great step in that direction.

 

[Rogifan]

Apple is never going to put macOS on an iPad or give Mac laptops touch screens. Why? Because it would kill sales of one or the other. Apple knows there are enough power users who own both a Mac and an iPad and they’re not going to do anything to change that.